Life Of Convenience

Monday, ‎January ‎23, ‎2023

Good morning, Lord

Verse of the Day: The Lord of hosts is His name; great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, giving to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. (Jeremiah 32:18b, 19)

Memory verse: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Readings: EXODUS 7-8 MATTHEW 15:1-20

Life of Convenience

If you google the word 'convenience', you will find two meanings.

The first is: "the state of being able to proceed with something with little effort or difficulty."

When was ever a 'cross' convenient? When was pain or death convenient? Jesus did not live in what we would call convenience or anything close to it.

If it was possible to find a place on this earth where they know no modern convenience, we would be amazed at the bliss. We used to see it and some still do-on mission endeavors into remote areas where people have never seen 'our kind' before. They do not know what is missing from their lives; many things you and I take for granted.

I have always been fascinated by caves. I was deep in the Yucatan once in a small town named Tecax(tacosh) and the folks were showing us the countryside and I saw the large mouth of a cave and moved quickly to look inside and the locals laughed as they yelled 'bano!'. The cave was their toilet.

The second definition of convenience on the internet was a set of pictures of the inside of bathrooms-evidently in England, one term for restrooms is 'convenience'.

If St. Paul walked among us today, what do you think he would say of the way we 'conveniently' live our Christian lives? How convenient is a cross-or pain-or suffering-or prison-or death?

No, I do not suggest we seek out pain and suffering for our faith in Christ. I do suggest we scrape away all the pretense and seek God without regard for what the world says of us.

But-if we treasure reputation over speaking the name of Jesus in a room of friends-if we fear losing rank and position for being known as a 'Bible-thumper' or 'Jesus freak'-we have some frivolous convenience in our lives.

Many lose their homes, jobs, even their lives everyday in this world for their profession of faith in Christ.

Does your faith consist of a bathroom break- a silence in conveniently-cloaked fear? Is your faith in the toilet?

Confess it to the Lord. Your life to this point, the Lord will never remember. From this point on you seek God and not the world. You live your life for Him as you go to school, work or wherever He may lead you.

People all around you need a hand up or an encouraging word and you may never know how your actions move the hearts around you but the Lord does.

...because He loves us...

Father in Heaven,

I confess I fear for my reputation. Fill me with courage and resolve to not be ashamed.

Great Father of courage and strength!

In the name of Christ Jesus,

Amen